Amherst News-Times, 1997-05-14

              Women in hot water over men — Page 16   Nord winners announced — P
Amherst News-Time
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Wednesday, May 14, 1997
Amherst, Ohio
Voters give bond issue big thumbs dc I   \
by GLEN MILLER
News-Times reporter
School officials think ihc pending
layoffs at the Lorain Ford assembly
plant and misinformation about the
Amherst schools were among the
factors contributing to last week's
defeat of a 3.954 mill school bond
issue.
"I don't think it was any one
thing. It was a combination of several that we'll have to work to overcome," school superintendent Howard Dulmage said. "We knew we
had a very difficult campaign on our
hands."
By an unofficial vote of 3,002 to
1,632, voters turned down efforts to
raise $16.7 million needed to eliminate overcrowding. The money
would have paid for construction of
40 additional classrooms, labs,
cafeterias and several renovations.
Dulmage said at least four things
contributed to the defeat:
• The anticipated end to auto assembly at the Lorain plant The layoff of more than 1,000 Ford em-
Republican Dunn
is winner in race
for auditor's job
in primary election
by BILL ROSS
News-Times reporter
As the winner in the only contested primary race in Amherst, Republican John Dunn will probably
be appointed to serve as interim auditor until the general election in
November.
According to Marilyn Jacobcik,
director of the board of elections,
the unofficial tally for the auditor's
race was 409 votes for Dunn and
354 for his opponent, Michael
Nolle.
Because former auditor Jim Gammons resigned from office last
month, under statutory law, the
party to which he was affiliated is
responsible for appointing the interim auditor.
The appointment will take place
after the official results are recorded
later this month, and Jacobcik said
"it would seem likely that the Republican parly will choose him
(Dunn)" to serve in that capacity.
Deputy auditor Cathy Pufnock
has been handling ihc auditor's duties in the meantime, but is not eligible to run for the position because
she docs not live in Amherst. "Even
if I lived in town I probably would
not run for it because I need a full-
time job and the auditor is only part-
time," she said.
Pufnock added that the auditor's
position requires no accounting
background, although it would be
preferable.
She said the majority of the administrative work and budgeting is
done by her and budgetary clerk
Donna Rumplcr, and that the auditor
acts as more of "a figurehead,"
meeting with city officials, attending city council meetings and making recommendations.
Dunn, 51, is a seven-year Amherst resident who is a product
availablity manager for Pepsi-Cola
and has been there 30 years. He
lives with his wife Maria, and they
CONTINUED on page 3
City could save
cash by housing
prisoners in own
five-day facility
by BILL ROSS
News-Times reporter
When voters approved the construction of the new police and jail
facility, they were told it could be
used to house prisoners for up to
five-day periods.
The facility recently became
licensed to do that, and now the city
is seriously considering the
possibility.
At a May 5 police and fire committee meeting, law director Alan
Anderson told members of council
that he had received a notification
from city prosecutor Steve List, indicating it is time to prepare the jail
to house prisoners in the manner for
which it was intended.
"We need to have corrections officers for the jail," Anderson said,
adding that it would be more cost-
effective for the city than paying for
prisoners to be housed at the Lorain
County Jail.
Currently, when a person convicted of a crime in Amherst is sent
ployces, some Amherst school district residents, may have made
people fear the financial impact of
the shutdown, Dulmage said.
To makes matters worse, rumors
have been circulating about the possible shut down of the Ford Econo-
line van assembly at the same plant
"Nobody really knows how
things like this are going to influ
ence the local economy and peoples' votes," he added.
• Misunderstanding about the
March 24 Ohio Supreme Court ruling on inadequate funding of
schools by the state.
Although the Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to develop
a new funding method by next
spring, legislators have said it could
ii
take more than a year. They have
said property taxes are not likely to
be greatly changed.
Regardless of information provided by campaign supporters and
the news media, Dulmage said too
many voters have the impression
property taxes will no longer fund
CONTINUED on page 3
to the Lorain County facility to
serve time for a minor offense, the
city must pay a $35 per diem charge
to the county. If that same prisoner
served a sentence in the Amherst facility, the city could save money,
according to police chief William
Hall.
"We have four men's cells, two
women's cells, two holding cells
and one detox cell," Hall said.
"Right now we are just using them
as holding facilities and are not using them for the purposed they were
designed."
As a holding cell, prisoners can
be kept no longer than eight hours.
Hall said that money can be saved
by keeping prisoners in Amherst because they could be required to
reimburse the city for the expense of
holding them there, rather than paying out money to Lorain county. It
is estimated that required reimbursement for time spent in the Amherst
jail would be from $40-45 per day.
List said one of the problems with
CONTINUED on page 16
Rendering a decision
Kids at St. Joseph's also went to the polls last week. Student
council elections were held for the upcominq school year and stu
dents made their choices during lunch times in the school
cafeteria, following speeches, slogans and voter registration.
Girls heed mom's advice to help out
Who says kids today don't listen to their mothers?
Lora Sanchez, a Shupe
Middle School sixth grader not
only listened to her mother's
suggestion to do something nice
for others, she took it upon herself to gather a few friends and
raise money to be given to the
Red Cross.
The money is to be used to
aid flood victims from Ohio.
On May 2, Lora and classmates Danielle Hosiewicz,
Jenny Saladin and Nicole
Vaught presented a check for
$240 to Clarence Wills, director
of the Lorain County chapter of
the American Red Cross.
In gratitude, Wills presented
the girls with a certificate for
their generosity and their caring
attitudes.
Lora's mother, Mousha
Sanchez, had been talking to her
several weeks earlier about how
not enough was being done locally for the flood victims, and
suggested the idea of raising
some money to help them out.
Rather than scoffing at the
idea, Lora immediately garnered
the support of her friends, and
Clarence Wills, director of the Lorain
County Chapter of the Red Cross, gives a
plaque of appreciation to Lora Sanchez,
Jenny Saladin, Danielle Losiewicz and Nicole
Vaught tor their efforts in raising $240 dollars
for the flood victims in southern Ohio.
they approached sixth grade
teacher Holly Schneider with the
idea.
After receiving approval from
principal Steve Demko and the
lunch aides, the girls went to
work,  collecting  money  from
fifth and sixth graders during
their lunch breaks.
The girls stayed after school
on several occasions to count the
money and received a strong
show of support from the other
Shupe students.
Lora and her friends enjoyed
the donation ceremony and
seemed touched and proud to receive the acknowledgement of
their altruism.
And the adults in attendance
seemed pretty proud as well.
Quarry zapped for time in AMP-Ohio contract
by BILL ROSS
News-Times reporter
The Cleveland Quarries will have
to put off indefinitely digging for a
cheaper source of power through the
city of Amherst and AMP-Ohio, after the second of two proposed ordinances was killed at a finance com
mittee meeting on May 5.
Quarries management, who currently negotiate its power needs directly with Ohio Edison, was hoping
to gel the AMP-Ohio/Amherst contract ratified in time to make the
switch this July, thereby enabling it
to save on power costs.
Superintendent of city utilities
Don Woodings said that the plan
had been for AMP-Ohio to finance a
transmission line to the quarries,
and then have the city of Amherst
buy it back, selling the power to the
quarries at a better rate than they
currently receive, while bringing in
extra income for the city.
But because the July 1 deadline
for the quarries to disconnect from
Ohio Edison is rapidly approaching,
Woodings told mayor John Higgins
that the project is not feasible at this
time.
"1 have to look out for the best
interests of the city," said Woodings. "In this case, we would not
have made as much money as we
originally thought, and the project
would have had to have been
rushed. When you rush something,
it just doesn't get done right."
The measure killed at the May 5
committee meeting was the second
of two ordinances necessary for the
agreement to take place.
The first ordinance (that was
ki'.led about a month ago) was an
agreement between the city and the
quarries, while the measure killed
last week was between the city and
AMP-Ohio.
"I told them in January that a year
from this July would be better," said
Woodings. who added that quarries
management wanted to push the
project along anyway. "But the load
wasn't there and the. time frame
wasn't there, so we had to back
out."
Although he is not making any
guarantees, Woodings said it is conceivable that new ordinances could
be drafted to enable a similar arrangement to lake place in 1998.
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